Kurdish "patriotic" families: an incentive or an impediment to joining the PKK through the generations and according to gender


TUĞRUL B., Lafaye C. G.

CRITICAL STUDIES ON TERRORISM, cilt.15, ss.484-507, 2022 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 15
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/17539153.2022.2049947
  • Dergi Adı: CRITICAL STUDIES ON TERRORISM
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Political Science Complete
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.484-507
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: PKK, Kurdish conflict, armed struggle, political commitment, generations, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, FEMINIST, WOMEN, WAR
  • Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

Participation in national liberation struggles is often considered to be a "family tradition". The academic literature has taken up the idea that every Kurdish family should "give a child" to the guerrilla movement. These assertions have rarely been based on qualitative data. To examine the role of family traditions on the militant trajectories of the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK), we met 64 of its guerrilla fighters from three consecutive generations, encompassing a broad militancy period from the mid-1980s until today. This article highlights the variable impact of primary socialisation processes, in particular, the patriotic family, according to the generations and gender, suggesting that retrospective narratives made by PKK militants themselves reflect reluctance among their family members towards their engagement in the clandestine struggle.